The University of South Florida (USF), in its third year of a Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP) grant focused on the state of Gujarat, India has identified improvement of local ethics board procedures as an area of strategic need. Building upon the relationship between USF and Medical College Baroda (MCB) and an emerging relationship with Government Medical College, Surat (GMCS) and working through the existing AITRP infrastructure, the proposed project will enhance the functioning of ethics committees at both MCB and GMCS by responding to identified areas in need of improvement by investigators and trainees. In doing so, the long-term objectives of this project are to help further build the capacity for the conduct of meaningful health research and to strengthen collaborative global health research initiatives between the United States and India. Specifically, this project aims to: (1) conduct a gap analysis/needs assessment of existing IECs at MCB and GMCS;(2) collaborate with the Indian Council on Medical Research (ICMR) and the local IECs to develop culturally appropriate guidelines and training resources in the ethical conduct of research with human participants with an emphasis on social-behavioral research protocols and to provide on- site training in this area at partner institutions;(3) collaborate with the USF Institutional Review Board (IRB), the ICMR, and the local IECs to develop a series of policies and procedures for expedited and exempt review protocols at MCB and GMCS;and (4) to use the recently developed USF-MCB AITRP Share Point site as a portal for sharing information with the MCB and GMCS IECs. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Global public health initiatives depend on sound, collaborative research, which often is impeded by limited understanding of international research ethics and differences in the ethical review and monitoring of research projects between countries. This project will enhance global health research initiatives by strengthening the Institutional Ethics Committees of partner institutions in India.